Providers of telecommunications services, such as AT&T, typically maintain large networks having various facilities, including thousands of kilometers of underground fiber optic cable. Accurate identification of network facilities on a geographical map while desirable is extremely expensive. Consequently, most telecommunications services provider have not undertaken widespread mapping of their facilities.
Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) systems can aid in establishing an extremely accurate spatial map. Present-day GPS system rely on a constellation of geosynchronous satellites that each transmit their position to earth on a continuous basis. A GPS receiver monitors the signals of three of more satellites and uses the satellite position information to calculate its own location. The process by which the GPS receiver calculates its position takes time, and does not yield an exact because of timing errors intentionally inserted into the satellite signals for security reasons. To partially overcome this problem, differential GPS (DGPS) receivers are now available that provide higher accuracy. A typical DGPS device makes use of known location data, such as obtained from a GPS reading, and then corrects that information by making its own GPS reading. After correcting the location information, the DGPS receiver can communicate the its corrected location information to a user in a particular area.
While affording increased accuracy, typical DGPS receivers may take even longer than a GPS receiver to provide corrected location information. Thus, spatial mapping with DGPS receivers is often time consuming, and is generally not practical in most instances where cost and time constraints exist.